I have a new job. I’m going to work with these people.
Please know, I’m not a particularly excitable person. But this is so cool I can barely sleep. And it’s not just the job, it’s the way it happened: I didn’t have anything solid lined up when I quit my last job.
“God, please take care of us. I’m doing what I think is right. Please take care of us.”
And now, my new job title is – get this! – “Storyteller”. I can’t do a whole lot of stuff. I’m a horrible mechanic. I’m a worse salesman. I wanted to be a baseball announcer, but I can’t see the ball.
But this? This, I can do. Oh, yes. AND – I will get to do radio, too! (We’re working on that, more details to come. Maybe on a station near you. And yes, I very much am hoping Producer Sherri is a part of that!)
I get to visit CURE kids in hospital wards around the world. I get to meet their families and listen to their stories. And I get to share those stories with anyone who will listen. They’re really God’s stories, of course, about how He’s still at work in the world, still moving in profound and obvious ways.
Where is God NOW? people ask.
He’s where He’s always been: Where He’s wanted.
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I’ve visited CURE’s hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan three times. The hospital is a blooming, brilliantly colored flower in a dry and hostile place. A few months ago, my joyful friend Dr. Jerry Umanos died there. He was killed by a gunman. He was killed not in spite of the joy he brought to so many Afghan children and their families; not in spite of the love God had given him for the “least of these”; but because of it.
Jerry, who was a pediatrician, was intensely interested in people finding out about the work of CURE. He told me maybe I could come work for them, in some capacity, and use whatever gifts I had to let more people know what God was doing in healing these little bodies, in mending these little lives. At the time, I didn’t consider it a viable possibility.
Someday, he and I will laugh about this. If I could talk to him, now: Hey, Jerry. You know those kids, the precious ones you didn’t want to be a secret? The ones you thought I should tell the world about? Guess what my new job is…
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I can’t wait. This job will involve a lot of travel. I’m not fond of airplanes, but I’m fond of the people airplanes take me to meet. And I plan to pack lots of crayons and – obviously – puppets. I’m good with puppets. Puppets transcend all barriers, not unlike my dance moves.
I’ll be speaking at churches, colleges, companies – wherever. So maybe invite me sometime! Or invite one of my puppets, who would be happy to minister to you in powerful ways.
I think a radio show – even a daily radio show – is going to happen, too. Thanks to technology, I can do it from anywhere, anytime, and if anything, I think this will help me be a more compelling radio personality. I want to keep doing it. I’ve spent a long time trying to get better at it, and seeing God at work just makes a person want to tell stories.
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So yeah – “storyteller”. I’m hoping to write a book with CURE, too. Every day, in every one of their hospitals, the most amazing things are happening. People need to hear it. Not because they need to know about CURE, but because they need to know that God is at work.
Like a mom said, after seeing her child’s life saved in CURE-Ethiopia: “This is where God walks the Earth.”
Yes, indeed, ma’am.
Holy ground.